Former San Pedro Elks Lodge member arrested for arson fire that destroyed building

A retired longshoreman, 78-year-old Nick Pecarich, has been arrested in connection with the arson fire that burned the San Pedro Elks Lodge on April 15, 2014. (Photo by Brad Graverson/The Daily Breeze)

Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino and other officials announced the arrest of a suspect, Nick Pecarich, 78, in the arson fire of the Elks Lodge Tuesday, April 29, 2014, San Pedro, CA.
Photo by Steve McCrank/Daily Breeze

A 78-year-old retired longshoreman who reportedly went on a rampage of destructive acts in the days before a fire gutted the San Pedro Elks Lodge was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of setting the blaze.

Bail has been set at $500,000.

Arson investigators have been piecing together a case against Nick Pecarich for two weeks as the San Pedro man was reportedly detained in a psychiatric facility.

Pecarich was arrested Tuesday — exactly two weeks after the April 15 fire — without incident, according to a news release provided at a news conference in the Elks parking lot. But citing the ongoing investigation, police and fire officials declined to answer any questions.

Officials said community members had been instrumental in helping them connect the dots and put together evidence that led to Pecarich’s arrest. He will be charged with felony arson.

“Here in San Pedro our hearts have been charred, but our spirits remain strong,” Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino said at the news conference. “We will rebuild this lodge and it will be bigger and better.

“This is still an ongoing investigation. The District Attorney’s Office has enough probable cause to make this arrest and it’s very case sensitive, so we need to respect the judicial process moving forward.”

Evidence reportedly includes surveillance video of Pecarich’s car, a black Honda Ridgeline, allegedly leaving the Elks parking lot shortly before the fire was reported at about 2:40 a.m., according to sources.

Other surveillance tape allegedly caught him filling up a gas can at the Chevron station at 29421 S. Western Ave., at Crestwood Drive, in Rancho Palos Verdes just 15 minutes before the blaze. Pecarich was a regular at the station, where he also bought a lighter at the transaction window that night, according to the station owner.

The Elks Lodge fire raged for hours and destroyed one of San Pedro’s most popular landmarks, where many local families celebrated wedding receptions, birthdays, anniversaries and other milestones through the decades. It was built in the 1960s on several acres of land overlooking the Los Angeles Harbor. It’s distinctive copper-domed roof, covered in a green patina, will probably be able to be saved along with other parts of the structure.

Officials would not comment on a motive or whether Pecarich was an Elks member. Some sources in the community, however, have said he was a longtime member of the lodge and reportedly was asked to leave when he became irate during a card game in recent weeks.

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Pecarich also is allegedly a suspect in two earlier incidents of vandalism at the club the weekend before the blaze. In one, a small vegetation fire was started and, in the other, an outdoor air-conditioning unit was rammed by a truck.

In the overnight hours of April 12-13, two days before the arson, a string of other vandalism incidents reportedly has been tied to Pecarich. Most prominent among them was an incident at Via Dolce Cafe, 29050 S. Western Ave., in Rancho Palos Verdes, where someone rammed the rear of a plate glass wall with the back end of a vehicle. Pecarich had been a longtime regular who was recently banned from the premises, sources said.

Two female customers who reportedly were being harassed by him also had their cars bashed in later, during the early morning hours of April 13, as the vehicles sat in their driveways not far away, the victims allege. Both took out restraining orders on Pecarich the day before the Elks fire.

Pecarich was originally arrested April 16 on felony vandalism charges.

“I want to thank members of the community who were instrumental in helping us,” said Los Angeles Deputy Fire Chief Don Frazier.

Neighbors described Pecarich as well-off financially but said he had become more contentious and easily agitated in recent years after losing two of his three adult children to illness. His daughter, Janet Pecarich, died of cancer on Jan. 3, 2013, at the age of 48. Her brother, Anthony, had died a few years earlier after battling multiple sclerosis.

Pecarich has one son remaining and lives with his wife, Nina, in northwest San Pedro.

He had no prior criminal record.

“To our brother Elks and the entire Elks family, we continue to be grateful for the community effort in coming together as one family after the incident that took this Elks Lodge down,” Buscaino said.